GOD’S COMPASSION

Give thanks to the Lord, for His compassion — His chesed, His mercy, His lovingkindness, His steadfast love — endures forever (26 times in Psalm 136)! And He insists that He must put that same chesed inside you, so you forgive exactly like He forgives.

Look at what God did with Judah, after they were overrun by Babylon and exiled because of their sin against Him:

Jeremiah 31:17-20 —

He tells him there is hope for their future and that their children will return to the promised land!

Why?

He has heard them grieving over their sin. They have said, “We were like untrained calves, going against You continually, and you have punished us. But now, bring us back! Restore us! For we have turned back to You, we have repented. You showed us our sin, and we were ashamed and humiliated. We bore the reproach we deserved, for we were like young and foolish ones.”

His response to their repentance is to remember them, His heart yearns for them, and He has mercy — checed — on them!

v.v. 23-24 It is time to settle accounts with our King. He finds that you owe Him more than you can fathom.

If a person made $10.00 per hour, working 8 hours a day, the 21st century equivalent of 10,000 talents would be $4.3 BILLION.

You surely cannot pay the debt you owe, and you fully understand how great is that debt!

v.v. 25-26 By all rights, you should be sold into slavery until you can repay, and you know you can never repay Him. Your situation is hopeless!

So you plead with the King — have patience, I will repay! And you fall down before Him.

But this is not just falling to the ground, as my Bible translation says. It is proskuneo, which means, “to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand; to fawn or crouch down, to prostrate oneself in homage, to revere and adore, to worship.”

You think the King might give you time to repay the impossible debt if you humble yourself in His sight, bow and worship Him, for He is God the Son.

v. 27 And God the Son has compassion on you, His chesed is poured out to you, His innermost parts are literally moved on your behalf.

And He sets you free and completely forgives your impossibly huge debt!

Remember that the key to His forgiveness is His compassion.
But what do you do with those who owe you? How do you respond to them?

v.v. 28-30 Someone owes you a small debt compared to what you owed your King.

The 21st century equivalent of a hundred denarii is $8,000, compared with the 4.3 BILLION you owed your King.

But you go to the one who owes you this small amount, and you choke him. You’re going to get what he owes you.

The King did not choke you, but your heart is not like the King’s.

Your debtor pleads with you just like you pleaded with the King.

But you are unwilling — literally, you will not. And you punish him by locking him up until he has paid what he owes you.

v. 33 The King says you should have shown the same mercy that He showed you.

v. 34 Moved with anger, even enraged by your behavior, He turns you over to the torturers until the impossibly huge debt you owed Him is paid off. Luke 16:28 tells us the place of torture is hell, beloved.

v. 35 Then Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, says His heavenly Father will do the same to you, unless you forgive FROM THE HEART. That’s from your innermost being.

I used to say that the reason we don’t forgive one another is that we don’t fully understand the extent to which God has forgiven us, and that when we do, we will forgive. But this slave knew how much he had been forgiven. And so do you, beloved.

Jesus says:

Matthew 6:14 “ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

The key is compassion — you are born lacking God’s compassion, His chesed.

You will say, “I lack it, so my situation is hopeless. I can try to forgive like God forgives, but I can’t do it.

“I will not take back my angry words that I have spoken, I will hold my grudges and bitterness, and they will be like a cancer in me (Hebrews 12:15). My bitterness and grudge-holding will devour me and defile, contaminate and taint my fellow Christians, and God will not forgive me because I cannot forgive. I am doomed to hell.”

God would NEVER leave you in that condition! It is not His will for any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2Peter 3:9)!

The New Testament equivalent of chesed is found in Thessalonians 5:23-24 —

1Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Sanctified entirely, completely, absolutely, perfectly — not just on the outside, not just partly on the inside, but through and through! He will do it if you ask Him:

Luke 11:13 “ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

He will fill you with His Spirit! You will be given God’s actual compassion in your heart, His love in your heart, His divine nature in your heart!

Then you will be able to forgive in the exact same way He has forgiven you, regardless of what anyone does against you, regardless of how you are wrongly attacked, regardless of how your character may be falsely maligned.

If you do not forgive, Father God will not forgive you.

Beloved, this is not humanly possible, but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)!

All you have to do is humble yourself, proskuneo toward Him, confess that your heart is not right. He is faithful! He will do it!

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Author: Susan Wynn, servant of Jesus Christ

Healed by Jesus Christ of MS in 2001, in the middle of the night! Proclaiming His gospel, His healing, His heart. Author of From Death To Life--A True Story of Healing, Hope and Being Set Free. Our ministry: My Father's Place, a ministry without walls, proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world.
View all posts by Susan Wynn, servant of Jesus Christ